And She Lives!

My husband who for some reason likes hearing about The Hero of Kvatch tinkered with Oblivion for me today.    The title and background music is gone but the game play is stable.

Having no confidence after my failure at the last cave, I went around the lake near Imperial City working the mudcrabs to get my blade skills up a bit, since whenever I panic I just go whack whack whack.

A couple of creatures and a bandit later, I went back to my home sweet shack and practiced my alchemy.

Then off to the Gilded Carafe to sell my potions to Miss Wrinkly Nose the Proprietor  (you know how they smoosh up their faces at you between sentences when they don’t like you).   A few weapons to one of the Three Brothers and over to Edgar’s Discount Spells where I could now purchase a single new spell.  I tortured between Major Wound (Drain Health) and Summon Scamp. 

I do love my conjured skeleton these days and don’t know if the scamp is significantly better but skellie is my pal and the wound might give me an edge.  Major Wound it is.  Now to try it out on some marauders…

The Hero of Kvatch…Maybe

As happens I got tired of merely going into the forts and caves surrounding the Imperial City.  I had to back out of a cave with a couple of Conjurors who just flattened me.  😦 

I have always played with Claymore in hand and heavy armor and have used little magic.  Now that I’m depending on magic I really need some strategies for dealing particular kinds of enemies.  Conjurors.  Imps.  Bandits respond nicely to Flare and Shock.

I decided I should go ahead and start the main quest after all and also join the Mages and Fighters guilds. 

This brought me to Kvatch and the Oblivion Gate.  Lootmeister that I am, I’m stopping and gathering every bit of Blood Grass and Harrada Root I come by.  I’m going in any doorways I find such as the Sump of Misery and its extension the Desolate Well.  I love those Fleshy Pods.  My gold level is going up nicely.

Entering the Tower Portal to the Blood Feast (don’t you love these names) I thought I was getting a room with two Imps who succumb nicely to Cold Touch, but to my shock a Dremora Churl came running out of a doorway on the right and I was fighting two Imps and the Churl.  I fought rather long and desperately but died.  😦

Re-entering I went left to try to get rid of the Imp there first.  I got him down quickly but the Churl was suddenly right there.  In a better fight I killed him and restored enough health and magicka to get Imp two.

I’m getting solid non-freezing play sessions now using compatibility settings for Windows Service Pack 3.

For some reason, though I went in and changed the settings, I can’t take screenshots anymore.  I’m not willing to tempt fate by going in and changing the config again.

Picture me dead beneath the feet of a Dremora for now.

The UESP Wiki Map of the Kvatch Oblivion Gate World.  Printed for myself too so I can get all the loot 🙂

The Foaming Flask

I wandered the city a bit hoping a merchant or tavernkeeper might buy my loot.  I spoke with the denizens of The Foaming Flask then wandered around doing a bit more of the same.

Very clunky movement and interface tonight with a couple of freezes.  This put me IN A MOOD so when it began raining and the wind began howling I stopped by the little shack by the docks which is the first house you can buy.

Coming away from the shack I was approached by the unfortunately named First Mate Malvulis who warned me in no uncertain terms that I’d be in trouble if I went on her ship.

So, I did a most unusual thing, I ran and jumped on her ship like a yahoo and sure enough her gnarly crew followed me and made short work of me and my skellie.

A tad unfriendly.   I’ll avoid them once I get my snuggly shack.  I did not save with me dead.

MMO thinking invades my Single Player Game

It occurred to me this morning as I was planning my exploratory path around the lairs and caves surrounding the Imperial City that my Wow and Wildstar “get the exploration achievement” for each area before moving on fiendishness is being applied to Oblivion.

I notice also I’m much less freaked out by  sudden attacks and I calmly go between menus to pick my next attack. 

In my dim single player past I took it all much more personally and just ran right up and whacked the bad guys giving them no room or time to fight.

We shall see how I do in Ayleid Tombs. The combination of dim lighting, swirling mists and really creepy ambient sounds always had me turning down the sound and listening to upbeat music in order to get through in one piece. What a weenie, I know.

Oblivion: Imperial City

I entered the Imperial City hoping to sell some stuff as I’m nearly overburdened.  Of course it was evening in the city and the shops are closed.

At least she won’t be attacked by wolves as she stands around the streets.

I looked to see how her skill increases are going and am doing pretty well but would like to improve Mysticism and a few other things. I’ll have to get in the habit of checking that.

No intro music tonight and controls and movement were very clunky.

A single freeze as I got stuck running into a wall.  I was able to bring up Task Manager in this case to stop the program whereas in previous freezes I’d get bounced out and needed to reboot.  FYI .

Sideways Cave

I made it out of the sewers!  My play session started out with the opening credits music playing for the first time since I’ve begun.  A good sign. Not a single freeze anywhere in the cave.

Sideways Cave isn’t one I’ve gone in before and it was sprawling.  No treasure chests, just imps.  On the way out I found a “dead treasure hunter” who had lots of fun stuff on him.  Other than that, Imp Gall and lots of practice using magic. 

I got to really appreciate my Summon Skeleton.  I hit that then Protect then Shocking Touch.  A whack of my sword if needed.  Very cool.  I relied at first on the Flare which shoots a pretty weak flame and seems to miss as often as not.  Better to let skellie go running up like a Hunter Pet while I get in range.

I also learned to appreciate the Starlight Spell since it sure is dark in the cave, as you can see.  As you may know the game does a fantastic job with ambient sounds.  My footsteps through the watery underground lake or on a metal grate, the screech of an imp, music changing in tone to make it seem like something bad is going to happen around the next corner.  It doesn’t get better than this.

I usually go straight to Chorral to begin the main quest but I decided to walk and explore this time instead.  I was standing outside looking at the Imperial City and thinking this should be a safe spot when the music rose and voila a wolf came out of nowhere.  Good thing skellie was ready.

Elder Scrolls

Ever since trying out the Elder Scrolls online in their open beta I have been thinking of returning to the real Elder scrolls worlds, those rich stories, those incredible environments.

Morrowind

I have Windows 7 and apparently my Game of the Year Edition of Morrowind despises Windows 7 or vice versa.  I read a variety of trouble shooting tips, none of which worked.  I got a music error and a font error that just froze the screen.  😦   

In desperation to play I cleared space on my utilitarian laptop with Windows XP and loaded it there and so far it works.  Looks awful but my imagination will have to fill in the blanks.

Oblivion

This is my all time favorite game.  It freezes the computer at dialogue boxes galore and forces a reboot.  Also looked at tips here and finally got it to work a bit playing as admin.  I saved the game every inch and got further in the sewers than in numerous previous attempts.  Finally had to give up for the day.   Posts online say the Steam version also freezes.  Doh.

Skyrim

I have played little of Skyrim and for some reason just did not care for it.  Still, it feeds the Elder Scrolls beast does it not.

Annoyingly to me, I had to log into Steam and update Steam and verify my address and account blah blah blah before I could play.  This, padawan, is why I just want my other games to work, so it is just me and my game world, no intrusion or demand for proof of anything before I immerse myself in the character and the world.

Defiantly I just struck out with my character across the landscape.  I wanted to use a long sword and some magic (which I haven’t used much in the past).  I dispatched some bandits at one location and found a nice cache of treasures in their little tower.  Then I moved on and came to a temple whose name I can’t recall.  Bandito city but my fireballs and sword proved too much for them.  Scum puppies.

I don’t care for Skyrim’s bleak snowy landscapes, but inside the chambers of a tomb or temple it is pure Elder Scrolls so I’ll get my fix here after all, and hope that Morrowind continues to function on my laptop.  I will find a way to get Oblivion going, I WILL.

Last note:  I created a Breton in Morrowind and Oblivion with the same name and somewhat the same skillset to try out a true magic character for the first time (usually I go Warrior).  If I can get them working it will be fun to explore the new class/race combo.